As a medicine feeding unit, a “solid preparation filling device” disclosed in Patent Literature 1, for example, can be mentioned. This medicine feeding unit basically includes a medicine container (which is described as a “tablet case” in Patent Literature 1; the following terms in the parentheses in the “Background” are the names of members disclosed in Patent Literature 1) that contains solid medicines, and a substantially cylindrical rotor (discharge drum) that is rotatably located inside the medicine container. The rotor rotates about the vertical axis. As the rotor rotates, the medicines can be sequentially ejected from a medicine outlet (outlet) provided in the medicine container. The ejected medicines are, for example, fed to a packaging device.
A plurality of temporary medicine containers (grooves) having receiving spaces that can temporarily contain the medicines are formed in the rotor. An outer circumferential portion of the rotor that is interposed between two temporary medicine containers serves as a blocking part. Each temporary medicine container is formed as a recess extending along the vertical axis on the outer circumferential surface of the rotor. The plurality of temporary medicine containers are formed at equal intervals in the circumferential direction.
For example, as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16 in Patent Literature 1, a partition body (a partition member and a brush member) may be located above the medicine outlet and above the portion where the temporary medicine containers of the rotor are formed. In the partition body, the portion in contact with the medicines is a brush composed of synthetic fibers or the like. Therefore, the partition body has flexibility. The partition body allows one temporary medicine container to contain only one medicine by partitioning between the upper space and the lower space of the partition body. Therefore, the medicines can be dropped one by one from the medicine outlet.
In such a medicine feeding unit provided with a partition body, a medicine may be occasionally caught between the partition body and the rotor (specifically, the blocking part) as the rotor rotates. This occurs because the medicine that has almost fallen into the temporary medicine container comes into contact with the partition body as the rotor rotates.
The caught medicine may come into contact with another medicine that has already been contained in the temporary medicine container in some cases. In such a case, a delay may occur in dropping the other medicine due to the other medicine being pressed, which may result in a shift in ejection timing. Further, the medicine that has been caught and the other medicine may be ejected at one time in some cases. Such an inconvenient phenomenon tends to occur particularly when ejecting medicines with an elongated shape such as capsules.
This inconvenient phenomenon is described with reference to FIG. 11A to FIG. 11I. In each figure, a rotor 91 rotates in a rotational direction R (in the direction from the right to the left of the figure). First, as shown in FIG. 11A, part of a tablet M such as a capsule may occasionally enter a temporary medicine container 92. Then, the tablet M in such a state comes into contact with a flexible part (“brush member” disclosed in Patent Literature 1) 93 of a partition body (FIG. 11B). Then, with the rotation of the rotor 91, the tablet M moving to the left of the figure gets under the flexible part 93, so as to be caught between the upper surface of the rotor 91 and the flexible part 93 (FIG. 11C). The tablet M caught as above slides on the upper surface of the rotor 91 with the rotation of the rotor 91 (FIG. 11D). Then, the sliding tablet M is about to fall into the temporary medicine container 92 (FIG. 11E). Here, in the case where another tablet M′ is already located in the temporary medicine container 92 into which the tablet M is about to fall, the caught tablet M presses the other tablet M′ to the right of the figure (in FIG. 11F, the pressing direction is shown by an arrow).
The pressed tablet M′ may fail to fall at an appropriate timing, even when it comes above a medicine outlet 94, due to being pressed against the inner surface of the temporary medicine container 92 in some cases (FIG. 11G). In the case where the tablet M′ falls with a delay, the tablet M′ may be caught between the temporary medicine container 92 and the edge of the medicine outlet 94 in some cases, as shown in FIG. 11H. In such a case, the rotor 91 may stop moving, or the tablet M′ may be damaged, in some cases. Alternatively, two tablets, that is, the tablet M that has been caught between the upper surface of the rotor 91 and the flexible part 93, and the other tablet M′ that has been already located in the temporary medicine container 92 may fall at one time in some cases, as shown in FIG. 11I. Such a phenomenon is the inconvenient phenomenon.